BlueLyon

He is generaly very good golakeeper, but there are two things; 1.) He cant be relied upon. With Cech, you knew it was great asset to have, someone who can literaly win you game. Someone who will perform at very best when you need him. Someone who is as important as lets say strikers or midfielders. Same can be said about Neuer or Buffon or Oblak etc. Tibo while good goalkeeper, I just cant ever expect he will actualy put great performance. When we played barca in 2012, it was so obvious Cech will do his job and I felt calm when he was at goal. With Tibo its just impossible, he makes stupid shit and rarely steps forward and actualy gives that extra. Obviously he is gk and will makes some saves and he actualy makes some great saves. But with Cech we could play absolute shit, he would make save after save in same game and keep us in game. Tibo makes 2 great saves then he concedes. Bad luck or quality opponents, but Cech had so many amazing games throughout the career, while I could count on one hand of extraordinary games Tibo had. 2.) I dont see him personaly involved with the club or teammates. Cech looked realy settled here, you could see on the pitch or videos he was loyal to club and had great relationship with teammates. Tibo just doesnt have that. Surely you see some glimpses, but its clear thats not it. Last year I finaly got feeling he has settled, gets along with everyone and began with that deep connection to the club, that he actualy gives a shit about Chelsea. But this season its again same old crap. I usualy get quite attached to cfc players if they are quality or have that connection with club, for me its not that easy to see them leave. From Didi, Cech, Terry obviously but also to the likes of Eden, Costa or Luiz,...all had their great moments with the club and when they left/will leave, its always a sad day. But with Tibo, honestly if we sold him in summer and brought lets say Oblak, I wouldnt mind at the slightest. He is very good goalkeeper, but he simply isnt great. And given he isnt exactly character or passionate about club, there isnt much to truly like about him tbh.

I think we were quite good overall, but lack of luck and mistakes ended us. However the team need still needs some big improvement. Moses, Alonso, Cesc and Giroud/Morata have to be upgraded. Might even say the same for Tibo who is very unreliable. Makes good saves but also lets incredibly stupid goals like Messi first today. And I defended Conte alot, but IMO its time to go. He is becoming too defensive and lacks reactions. Its easy to say he pulled good tactic at SB and same tonight, but luck got the better of us, however IMO there is too much negativity about him these days. Last season he was manager who insipred us to be better than what we are, but this season he always just prepares for the worst. I dont know its just my feeling when I watch that he doesnt have complete faith in this squad and doesnt motivate enough. Its nothing to do with defensive tactics, its just that I dont see him as someone who could inspire players "you can do it" and actualy have the plan to execute it anymore.

Good match please and fight till last minute. Cmon Chels!

Pogba and Alexis And some people here wanted us to pay 400k per week for him lol.

Iniesta is available to play from 1st minute tomorrow. Its quite a blow for us IMO.

I agree his performances in CL have been poor often considering the level he plays at in PL, but lets look at this from another angle. PL teams are one thing, CL is whole different league of quality. Hazard is playing in bang average squad. Hell some Sevilla/Monaco/Borussia have more quality and organisation in attack. We have strong defence though, but my point is about attack and techical ability of midfielders (or lack off). People love to dig at Eden for every bad game, but he gets little proper support. Compare his close teammates (Alonso, Cesc, Morata, Willian) to the likes of Neymar, CR, Messi,...teammates play with. Put him in Real or Barca and its guaranteed he becomes twice better.

He wanted to leave in summer, but decided to stay. And then in january 2017 he was about to extend contract, but bust with Conte turned things around with Conte demanding his sale. You cant possibly defend Conte here mate. David Luiz had one bust with Conte too and look, he doesnt get a sniff anymore. Its clear Conte doesnt give a shit. Its cool to show authority, but managers in big clubs have to know how to deal with big egos and solve the situation with talk. Simple. Besides it doesnt matter whose fault it was. What matters is that people acknowledge it was extremely stupid to sell Costa and we shouldnt have done it. Now we have to get someone else in the summer. AGAIN. Instead of time and resources we could spend on midfield or elsewhere, we will look for another striker again. Because we need quality striker, because for system we play, having prolific striker is absolute priority.

Yeah Im grateful too. I was in my teens, so I was just lucky enough to catch football since 1999. I mean, its not just about Chelsea players, but damn football had so many legends during 2000s. Brazil and French generations, the likes of Maldini, Zanetti, Buffon, Raul,... And I had mad respect even for our rivals. Henry, Gerrard, Neville, Vidic, Vieira,...hands down some of my favourite players even if they played for rivals. They were not just top players but personalities who ooze class and you want to become like them. I seriously wonder what kids of today use as role models and how they appreciate opponents, when you have the likes of Pogba and Alexis... And same with Chelsea. It would be much harder for me to fall in football love with Chelsea today compared to Terry, Lamps, Hasselbaink generation.

Wow he is already 40 I remember years ago when he was like 29 and I was considering how many years he has left and what a big loss it will be eventualy to play without him. Time flies so damn fast.

On the flip side this is karma at its best and if I wasnt Chelsea fan, I would laugh so hard. Fans wanted Costa to fuck off and literaly shown no respect in summer. And they wanted someone "nicer" on the pitch, because Costa was apparently all about cards and more of a trouble than good for this team. Now we are stuck with Morata who is actualy definition what fans said about Costa in summer; getting cards for no reason, doesnt help the team, doesnt give shit. Karma. I told you Costa was fucking doctor for anyone we could get and he actualy liked playing for club despite antics in past. The situation was on Conte to blame, much like now with Luiz.

The attitude of Chelsea fans towards Bats is realy funny. He flopped here, but people love to go pointing out how shit he was, and how average he is now and only scoring against poor teams, trying to downplay his good loan etc. Probably just because some are butthurt he flopped and wanted to get rid of him and obviously they dont want to be wrong, so they bring all the negative stuff about Bats, allthrough he is doing ok. Then you will see these same fans bandwagon over players like Barkley or Drinks when they have one good game. Im not saying Bats is now world class, but for fuck sake cant we all appreciate he has good loan at BvB and be happy about it? I guess same fans who shit over Bats will cry if he bangs goals for another PL side. Its hard to imagine now, but same was about Salah and look the situation now. Bats isnt realy smart striker, but he has athleticism and certainly very good finish. I think he can make it in top team within next 2 years if he plays regular football.

This. He has all the talent, but just doesnt give a shit. And our current team is also a problem, character wise. Who will tell Morata to change, improve? Drogba, Ivanovic, Terry, Ballack, Lamps were authorities, not just because of their bold character, but also their status and respect. Current squad doesnt have such people sadly. Azpi, Kante, Eden have quality, but they arent vocal/imposing enough. I realy thought Baka could become that "dont fuck with me or my teammates" dude, but his mentality is potato, like half or this team. Everyone gets offended for smallest shits and loses confidence all the time. Man the fuck up.

Wait, so he basicaly said his opinion before game was we either lose 1:0 if we defend or lose 3:0 if we attack? Im not sure if thats funny or sad. Fuck off Conte, we should be optimistic and play for the win everytime. At least try your best for fuck sake. Wigan managed to upset City, so they are not unbeatable. If Conte actualy thought its matter of how many goals we concede pregame, thats has to be one of the worst professional managing I have ever seen in a top club. Disgrace.

The only excuse for this shit kind of football are results. And we have no results at all. I was defending Conte alot, but if he plans on playing defensive for 90min and hope we score in one of 3(!) attacks we can manage per game, he needs to be gone. He shipped Costa out singlehandely and now doesnt even play Morata or Giroud. Get the fuck out with such tactics. I get it we play defensive. I also get it we dont have quality players on bench. BUT defending after 1:0 down, not playing striker and negative approach as whole is just not acceptable. If we fought and lost, I would applaud the team. But this coward approach is doing us no favours.

I dont think people worry about Moratas qualities on the pitch. We all knew he is rather unreliable and inconsistent. But fuck I hate his attitude and character. He just looks lost and disinterested, probably doesnt even want to be here and still dreams of playing for Real. In case like this its better to have someone with less skill but actualy cares for the team and fights to win. Morata has ability, but he is spineless. You need someone who will give 110 percent all the time, in game, on training etc. Morata just goes sideways, he doesnt fight and work to improve.

After some research, the owner of this china club is the same guy who owned part of shares at Atletico (Wanda group). What makes it even funnier is they sold him for just 30m! He is easily easily worth at least 50 in today market. Nothing suspicious here, just some oldfashioned money laundring.

Never going to happen, but its exactly the striker we should be after.

I was a big fan of us getting Morata instead of Lukaku for many reasons. In pure footballing terms, neither is perfect and both have big flaws, but Morata certainly had that superior technique and potential to become complete striker, he looks to have tools for all. But what Lukaku has over him has nothing to do with football ability. Its the head. What I didnt consider however, is how Morata will adopt here. Lukaku was proven and will be there to count at United on every training, every match, he will be commited and prepared. Morata here whines and complains, falls down, gets injured, misses Spain and all other bs. One week is in squad, next week not and plays hot and cold. Lukaku strenghts are well seen. He is consistent to his ability. He performs, but he has limits and thats why he fails in some games. Morata on other hand could be much much better player than he is, but he just doesnt have it to push himself and prove to Chelsea every week. Just goes the easy way, despite ability. Neither is real quality striker, but with Lukaku you know what you got and he is commited. Morata is just unpredictable and doesnt look settled at all. Lukaku wants to succeed in PL, Morata dreams of playing in Laliga for Real. Its obvious, but we have to try to make it work.

We should go for back 4 either way. 3 CBs was a stop gap at first and we could get players for 4:3:3 or something in summer. Fair enough it worked great last season so we sticked to it, but it doesnt work anymore. There is no reason to go with 3 at the back come next season, with Conte or without.

So he actualy went to china? What a weak mentality...

Because Morata isnt good enough to be first choice sadly. And neither is Giroud. We should do what Arsenal did and bring top striker like Pea. Or keep Bats and find striker in summer. For backup Bats was good enough. He wasnt nearly good enough to start games though. But neither is Giroud. We just stir the shit at Chelsea nowdays. We dont solve problems at all, just new day, same old problems. We replaced problem named Bats with problem named Giroud. Neither is going to solve anything. Bottom line, we are in dire need for upgrades. Expensive, but if we want to compete, we have to pay. Its simple. And instead we are fucking around with the likes of Barkley, Bakayoko, Drinks, Giroud, Emerson...hell even Morata came as extremely big question. Yeah Emerson is promising, so is Barkley. But damn, we need first 11 quality upgrades. Thats fucking priority. Once first 11 is settled, board can play around and take risks with Emersons and Barkleys. Im sick the club is settling for average players who have zero connection to club, zero character, zero potential, average quality. Either buy quality players or players that will fight for the club. For example, you can see what Conte made out of Vidal at juve. We need this type of players. Not some instagram, poster boys who belong to model agency and not on the pitch. Giroud is ok as backup. But let me ask you this. We needed top player in january to give us boost. To help us secure top 4. What did we do? Barkley and Giroud? Lol. And now we fall from top 4, slowly but surely. Im not fan of extreme over spending, but when its necessary and on right player, Im all in. Mahrez was up for the taking in january. Where were we? Securing deals for Michy and Morata. We had Bats. He isnt reliable tbh, but fuck me I dont feel any better knowing Giroud might lead us in CL and top 4 chase. He can score, yeah, he gets goals sometimes. But truth is he is average, not even arsenal standard. Why? Because he is good from bench, but average when he gets run of games. Because he misses sitters all day. Like Morata. We needed someone that can push the team forward. Be it striker, be it RW. The board did nothing. At this rate, we will be lucky to compete in CL in the coming years, never mind be on the top. Pool is improving, so is City by mile and United has money power that can buy anyone. And we are just waiting. Hell we cant even secure contracts with Eden and Tibo. But the biggest problem I see is Diego case. Making problem out of nothing. There was NO striker as good as him or close to him on market. Like or hate Diego, fact is he is top striker. And yet, we had to ship him off. This summer will tell if we are going to run back for the top or do Arsenal. And its not even funny anymore. Im optimistic always, but the situation is terrible. People think (or hope) we will magicaly pull another title season next year, but the truth is we will be lucky to be in top 4. If we had prime Drogba here, fuck it, bring Giroud as backup. But we dont even have single good striker and we keep on bringing more average players. It says enough our plan was to bring out and out top LWB. We bring Emerson who was injured for half year. And he isnt even getting trust by Conte. With two lbs in Alonso, Emerson, we wont be getting anyone else. So thats that. LB will either be one of those two. Sure, Emerson has potential. But we need quality. Someone who you buy and you can trust two days later in derby. Arsenal was buying talents for years. Cheaper, future. Yeah, they have done amazing. You will say Im overreacting, but mate, we have less and less quality and character each year. One day it will fall apart if we dont start rebuilding seriously.

Well this is what you get when you need "improvements" but you actualy end up with far worse players. Morata for Costa, Drinkwater and Bakayoko for Matic and finaly Giroud for Morata. Cant believe people thought Drinks and Giroud will end up quality and useful players. I called it out, the bandwagon on those two players was funny. They are average at best, but people made it look like they can somehow put great shift, maybe everyone is just desperate and wants to convince themselves we actualy made smart transfers? I mean Leicester wanted an update for Drinks and Arsenal bought two strikers to replace Giroud. But those two were supposed to be good for us? Yes as third choice striker and 4th choice midfielder, not anywhere near first 11. We fucking knew Cesc wont hold his own whole season and we need quality backup/possible starter because he would start alot, the best board could do was Drinks? And also now we are not only stuck with one bad striker, but two. So much for Giroud to wake Morata and give him competition lol. Both are bang average. Morata should have goal today though if not for stupid ref mistake again. It just says we dont have luck sometimes, but that shouldnt be excuse. Players should do better. We had united for the taking, but the mentality of our team sometimes...sad, very sad. Onto city now....I actualy was quite optimistic for Barca and United games, but for City, I think we have no chance, except for maybe another tactical defending that ends up with fluke goal and 1:0 win for us. But even then, that wouldnt mean shit, because it was fluke win and we will return to bad displays soon after. Barca camp nou game will decide if our season was again disaster or not. Hopefuly all the football gods work in our favour there. And on side note, why the hell didnt Emerson start? Conte complains about lack of depth, but doesnt trust the players he gets. We could have 10 Emersons, whats the point in having them if Conte doesnt play them anytime, except for some cup games here and there where even good game means jack shit. On the other hand, he doesnt have problem fielding Drinks or Giroud at all. Just goes to say we are still that old team that relies on average players who are "reliable", but those who can actualy improve us longterm and are bit of risk dont smell the pitch at all (with exception of Christensen). Conte won us title last year, but collectively, we havent improved one bit on any are. The first 11, the bench, the future players, the style of play. All goes sideways, one step up, two down. Then the odd shortterm title season, but nothing that would last. The day this policy, when we stop getting trophies, the club will become average, because apart from trophies, there is nothing that would appeal other stars to join us. Sadly.

But letting them attack all the time at campnou wont be good idea. If we concede, thats almost game over. Obviously we must not go all out attack, but when we are in possesion, we need to keep the ball and attack them, not just hoof and pray. The last thing we want is give barca chance to attack us all night. I know we will have about 30-40 percent of the ball, but we have to show determination every time we have it. Not just hoof and pray, that way we will only win if we have extreme luck infront of goal and barca bad day in attack

Perfect tactical game, its just shame we did that mistake for the Messi goal. Again, we will be big underdogs at Camp Nou, but if we put up the same desire and mentality like yesterday, it will give Barca a run. We have to score, but more space will be perfect for barca. It will be tough game and we will have to take every chance we make. The good thing we have is Barca has no idea how will we lineup. Striker or false 9? 3 or 2 in midfield? That could make Barca bit confused at the back, but they will play their game and keep possesion/attack. We will have to be at our best to advantage. Clinical.

We should play Emerson and Giroud/Morata this game.